A Wisconsin woman says a Southwest Airlines flight attendant stopped her from calling her husband — moments after he texted saying he was going to kill himself and hours before she arrived home to waiting police, who told her that he was dead.
Karen Momsen-Evers received the text just before her flight to Milwaukee from New Orleans was set to take off, according to WTMJ in Milwaukee.
“I started shaking the minute I got the text and I was panicked, I didn’t know what to do,” she told the station.
Momsen-Evers, 57, said she responded “no” and attempted to call her husband, but was stopped by a flight attendant.
“The steward slapped the phone down and said, ‘You need to go on airplane mode now,'” she told the station.
After the plane reached cruising altitude, she said she begged another flight attendant to make an emergency call. But she was told nothing could be done.
She called police after landing, finally arriving home to waiting officers.
“They got on their knees, put their hats over their heart and gave me the ‘I regret to inform you that your husband has died,'” she told the station.
In a statement to WTMJ, Southwest said that flight attendants are trained to notify the captain of any emergencies, but, “in this situation, the pilots were not notified.”
“Our hearts go out to the Evers family during this difficult time,” Southwest added.